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Forum for Dignity Initiatives -fdi is having serious concerns over humiliation of transgender persons by mainstream media in Pakistan. It is evident multiple times that media is less sensitive towards transgender person’s dignity and they violate it in such a casual way which is not only concerning but disturbing as well. fdi counts on media as one of our important and key stakeholder for changing behavior towards transgender persons and raising awareness on the challenges and issues faced by them based on deep rooted stigma and discrimination against them.

Evidently late night talk shows such as “MAZAQ RAAT”, “KHBERNAAK”, “Hasbe Hal” and number of other similar talk shows make fun of transgender persons, they are mocked, humiliated and used derogatory terms and phrases denoting their gender. It has become a permanent feature of all these talk shows to demine transgender persons and it also reflective in political discussions on these news channels as well. An opponent in politics is called “Hijra”, “Khusra” , “Baji” out of humiliation.

fdi strongly condemns this insensitive approach of all the talk shows mentioned above and call for immediate action by the Pakistan Electoral and Media Regulatory Authority-PEMRA, Ministry of Human Rights-MOHR, Ministry of Information, and National Commission for Human Rights-NCHR, National Commission on Status of Women-NCSW. fdi also calls for action by the media houses owners to take care of these insensitive approach by their anchor persons and producers of all these talk shows. We demand an apology from all these talk shows to transgender community living in Pakistan and we encourage media houses to create safe spaces for transgender community and create employment opportunities for them. By offering them jobs in these media houses may compensate a little all the damage we caused to transgender persons emotionally to their self-respect and dignity.

Learn more about the work that forum for dignity does at www.fdipakistan.org